Some said that the industrial revolution would do away with craftsmanship.

Will 3D do away with art or do we have 3D futures ?

If everything can be copied and printed in about 100 materials (to date), then will there be such a thing as a ‘unique piece’ or will there be editions of thousands of such ‘unique pieces’? [1]

Adapting to progress has always been a challenge because everything changes.

Change incites change and this often engenders fear.

The ever-transforming creative landscape opens a world of opportunity while igniting the vociferous opinions of the sanctimonious purist.

As a sculptor I would have to say that my hands have a raison d’être that defines me.

I use them to sculpt so in a way, we could say that I am limiting myself if I close the door to the creative possibilities that 3D printing might grant us.

There is simply no replacement to modeling a figure.

A body cast can not replace the modeled figure and neither could a scanned figure. (I have seen one and it is not the same.)

A carefully sculpted figure is still not an exact reproduction of a figure, it is an art form.

This is at the core of how we create.

However, having said that, is it not wrong to deny the advancement of the process?

While 3D printing will never give the same results as those witnessed when a sculpture is created using one’s hands we should welcome the creative prospects that this new technology could bring.

A machine can, however, allow for new methodologies that could bring about a new art form.

I think it should be viewed as an adventure.

While I must admit that much of the 3D printing I have seen leaves much to be desired (again, because I am a sculptor), let’s look at the amazing things it has brought about in the medical field, for example.

Or the new ability to create very cool looking radiators that massively increase the amount of both water and air flowing through a smaller space than could otherwise be assembled, even if made by hand!

Then there is 4D printing, with the 4th dimension being time. It’s quite amazing!

‘This emerging technology will allow us to print objects that then reshape themselves or self-assemble over time.

Think: a printed cube that folds before your eyes, or a printed pipe able to sense the need to expand or contract.” [2]

What could this do for artists who work with ephemeral sculpture?

A whole new world of creative promise presents itself.

The applications of 3D printing in art are to be discovered and developed.

Having an open mind to the future of art history means that while we cannot and would not deny the past, we should not deny the new tools with which to create.

A sculptor will still be a sculptor and a good 3D or 4D printer may simply help us in doing what we do.

Millions of considerations and decisions are made before and during creation.

While we have an idea of where we might be going with a piece, do we really know?

Often I see the piece in my mind before I even begin to build it, I have an idea of what I want it to look like, but things always happen in the process.

Happy accidents we call them.

Francis Bacon said: “In my case all painting… is an accident. I foresee it and yet I hardly ever carry it out as I foresee it. It transforms itself by the actual paint. I don’t in fact know very often what the paint will do, and it does many things which are very much better than I could make it do.” [1]
In my case it’s the wax, not the pigment but the idea is the same.

There have been times when I thought I would lose a piece because of a problem with the wax or with the bronze pour and instead what ultimately happened was amazing!

Bacon also said: “All painting is an accident. But it’s also not an accident, because one must select what part of the accident one chooses to preserve.” [2]

The process of making those millions of decisions is what makes the artist.

So who is really creating?

I’ve always sustained that it was the universe creating through me.

However, if Bacon was right then I do bare some degree of responsibility for the ultimate outcome.

The next issue to consider is the way that work of art will affect the viewer.

Will it trigger a reaction?

Will the viewer gasp, cry, or even commit a crime?

Or will the viewer remain indifferent to it.

How much influence on a person can a work of art have?

Can it inspire them to brake the law?

If so, are we, as artists, ultimately responsible for the outcome?

The U.S. Supreme Court, In the case of Brandenburg v. Ohio, held that “expression advocating violent or otherwise illegal behavior only loses First Amendment protection if the expression is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless behavior, and is likely to result in such action.” [3]

This means that the artist is absolved of any such responsibility as long as the required elements of intent, imminence and probability are not met. [4]

I wanted to see inside the figure, simply because you rarely see the interior of a bronze sculpture.

As a result my work became an exploration into this exposed interior, which in turn became a quest to underline the importance of that inner world.

I felt a need to understand what we have inside of us, and believe this is important because we often don’t think as much of ourselves as we should.

Often the way others see us is much better than the way we see ourselves.

We deny ourselves the self-esteem that we actually deserve.

In order to comprehend our value we need to seek out the truth about ourselves.

If we could take a good look inside and reflect honestly on what we see; our behavior and values, we might find that we are of more value than we think.

This ignites an awareness that is the staircase leading deeper into the person we really are.

It is this consciousness that will allow us to leave behind some of the old ideas about ourselves.

While it is often very difficult to see through the layers of illusion we have created as a part of our identity, I believe that this look into our inner world, our thoughts and feelings, can lead us toward serenity.

Honest reflection may give us a new perspective.

This may begin simply by asking your self a few questions like; think about the people you respect and admire the most, what are the qualities that garner that respect and can you find those same qualities in yourself?

What are the things that you are passionate about?

What are the things that hold your curiosity and why do they interest you?

What is it in you that makes you different from other people you know?

What would you like someone to write as your epitaph?

Journaling is also a powerful way of investigating the significance of your own feelings and experiences.

It’s a very effective way of developing an understanding into your patterns of behavior.

As your belief in yourself increases, so does your ability to accomplish anything your heart desires.

Where do artists find their art?
Is the universe leading us or might we, as mere mortal beings, humbly have something to do with it?
Passion must be involved, as well as our obstinacy to continue when all seems lost.
I believe that while our creativity can come from many different sources one of the most important among these is experience and observation of the world we live in.
If we observe our lives and are aware of our feelings and emotions we find myriad of choices.
The stories we have lived and starred in teach us and through careful observation we will understand things that might have escaped us before.

When I am working I often wonder how much is an accident and how much is choice.
For instance, when I am doing what I call “reverse engineering” where I remove some of the wax layers of the sculpture I am working on, I am engaging in a huge leap of faith that requires me to let go.
Chance and happenstance is now controlling the process.
Is that me or is it the universe creating?
Undeniably, the result could never have come about without letting go of that control, at whatever risk!

Who was it that said that the most talented people are those most aware of their deficiencies and the most willing to overcome them?
Sometimes it takes accepting that which we can’t do.
Richard Serra is a great example of this. [1]
After finishing grad school in Florence he went to view Velázquez’ Las Meninas at the Prado in Madrid.
Serra’s life changed that day.
Convinced he was no Velázquez he went back to Florence and threw all his paintings, easel and paint into the river.
He faced, admitted and even embraced a reality that was nothing less than horrible!

Yet, it was what happened next that matters.
He began an exploration using a list of verbs: to hold, to fold….etc and actually did these things to many different types of materials.
When he got to: ‘To Lift’ (now at MOMA) he did this to a large piece of rubber and this was the start of the rest of his life as an artist.
Serra had found his voice.
With his monumental pieces he has done what he realized he could not do with painting and in embracing that reality his genius had a chance.
Standing between what we dream of and what we hoped for is hard.
Yet, if we can somehow embrace that place and call it home, we may find that sometimes things brake for a reason and we might be surprised with what happens next.

The stories of our lives, experience, limitations and losses, in essence, the challenges of life will mysteriously change our lives.
It is just like with my reverse engineering, if we are listening creativity can get the chance to resound far beyond our dreams.

Sometimes we just don’t know what to say…..There are simply too many choices!

Like John Cage’s silent piece 4’33’’ or the empty room at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona during the exhibition John Cage and Experimental Art: The Anarchy of Silence.
I wonder if anything should be said at all?

The idea of the empty room for the exhibition was very subversive at the time.
It would have been clear to anyone going to see this Cage exhibition that this was the center of the exhibition, the empty room.

Like the silent piece, 4’33’’, where virtuoso pianist David Tudor got on stage, sat at the piano, opened the keyboard for thirty seconds, then closed and re-opened it for two minutes twenty-three seconds and again closed and re-opened it for one minute forty seconds before leaving the stage. [1]

Confronted with ourselves and nothing other than the emptiness of that room (or the silence in a note-less piece of music) we have only our memory to guide us and help us negotiate these concepts that point to the excesses of the post-war avant-garde.

Is this merely a reaction to the early abstraction of the 1920’s where the external world was constantly referenced?
Was the pendulum swinging as it does, eternally taking us from one thing to the extreme and then swinging back?
The compounding of artistic knowledge builds on the last idea, leading us away from the accepted norms, towards transgression.

Everything changes over time and my Angels today are clearly existing in a world of conceptual abstraction yet contrary to early abstraction, they reference our interior world.

This internal abstraction solicits our memory in much the same way as John Cage’s 4’33’ does.
With the suggestions of the body, they depict the beauty and the complexity of men and women.
Not everything is explained but rather left for the viewer’s instinct to take in and understand.

Yes! There are too many choices, yet it is in looking deep within that we access our memory and find a voice to tell that untold story….
The Angels invite us to evolve, to let go of the outside world and turn toward the inside….